TITLE DECISION
by William C. Martell
It's the first thing anyone will ever hear about your screenplay, and you don't get a second chance to make a first impression. Out of the 20,000 words that make up your script, these two or three little words will become your script's identity. The title.
Finding the right title for your script is one of the most important decisions you will make... like naming your children. Hey, it's only a couple of words, right? Why sweat it? Well, the fewer words, the more work required because each word becomes more important. Your title is an advertisement for your script... you want it to sell, don't you?
TWELVE TITLE TIPS!
1) A good title reflects the tone and genre of the script. If you began reading a script called "Fluffy Bunny" you wouldn't expect it to be a violent action story. That would be false advertizing! You have prepared the reader for the adventures of a cute little bunny, then given them machine gun fights. Title the same script "First Blood" and you've prepared the reader.
Action scripts should have titles that SOUND like action films, it doesn't hurt if your comedy script has a funny title, epics need grand titles, kids films need whimsical, soft fluffy titles.
Titles that don't fit the genre of the script are hard to remember. If I'm trying to remember the title of an action flick about a Viet Nam veteran who brings the war home with him when he takes on a corrupt sheriff in a mano-a-mano battle, "Fuzzy Bunny" is never going to enter my mind. You don't want your script to be forgotten!
2) The title should grow from the story. This ties the title to the story, making it much easier to remember and creating an identity for the script. Your Viet Nam veteran is facing off against your corrupt sheriff in a battle - a duel. In a duel (or even a street fight) the first combatant to draw blood usually has the advantage... The term for this is "first blood". The title grows out of the duel between the two men... Story and title are connected. Easy to remember!
3) A good title is Idiot Proof. I have a friend who uses quotes for titles. The problem is, this requires that the audience be as well read as he is... and they aren't. Film is popular entertainment. 98.5% of the audience didn't major in literature. If the audience doesn't know the quote, your clever title may just be a collection of unrelated words to them. How do you remember that?
The title of the new James Bond film "The World Is Not Enough" is a quote from the Bond novel "On Her Majesties Secret Service"... but if we haven't read the book it's just a bunch of words. It certainly doesn't SOUND like an action film. I've read OHMSS and didn't remember the line until someone mentioned it. You can't expect the audience to know the quotes! You can't expect them to know ANYTHING! Your title is supposed to TELL THEM something about your script, not require them to know something. Before "The Full Monty" came out the film's cast did the talk show circuit to explain to Conan, Leno, Letterman, and the rest of America what that British phrase means.
I'm not saying you shouldn't use quotes for titles, just that the quote has to stand on its own: have a meaning independent of the source material. There's a Charles Bronson movie that takes it's title from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" called "The Evil That Men Do". That SOUNDS like a Charles Bronson movie. Men are doing evil! That title works even if you don't know the quote... or the balance of the quote.
Even if you don't know the dueling term "first blood", the title tells us the film will contain violent action. Hey, if there's first blood, that means there will be second blood and third blood and lots of blood!
Don't out clever yourself by coming up with a title that only a genius like yourself can understand and remember. You want ten year old kids to understand your title! Everyone should be able to "get" your title!
4) A good title is Catchy. The title has that SOUND. It's easy to say, it rolls off the tongue. It has a rhythm to it. "The Evil That Men Do" has it (thanks to Shakespeare). "Dog Day Afternoon" has it. "Saving Private Ryan" has it.
The three words that make up "Saving Private Ryan" are homogeneous: three two-syllable words, the first two words are divided by the letter V, the last two words both use the same "a" sound in their second syllable. This creates a rhythm, a tonality, almost a three word poem. "Dog Day Afternoon" uses alliteration and a combination of short hard words and an melodious three syllable word. Alteration is a great tool for creating catchy titles - "Five Feet From Freedom" is a fairly catchy title... which I made up on the spot to illustrate my point! Similar sounds in a rhythm also leads to a catchy title. "Silence Of The Lambs" begins and ends with a hiss!
5) The parking lot test. You've just come from the movies, across the parking lot is a friend, he yells "what did you see?", you yell the title of the movie. Does he know EXACTLY what movie you went to see? If your title is "Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace" he's probably not going to hear all of it... or be able to digest all of it over the noise. That title is too long and complicated, unless your name is George Lucas and people have been waiting two decades to see your next film!
"The Deep End Of The Ocean" is another overly complicated title. I know that's the title of the novel, but it's confusing. There's no way someone on the other side of the parking lot could hear all of that! Add that this title doesn't fit the genre, or story, and isn't the least bit catchy... it's no wonder the film flopped! "The Deep End Of The Ocean" has to be the worst title of the decade!
It's hard to imagine anyone remembering "Braddock: Missing In Action Part 3" or even "Missing In Action Part 2: The Beginning". In the parking lot these were: "That new Chuck Norris movie, I can't remember the name." Keep your titles simple! You want people top be able to recommend the film to that friend on the other side of the parking lot... or the development exec on the other side of the office building.
6) Condensed story. If you have a script that can be summed up in two or three words that would probably make a great title. There was a TV show called "Dark Justice" about a vigilante judge who went after scumbags crooks that he was forced to let off on a technicality. Imagine this judge in his long black robes on a motorcycle with a shotgun - that was the "billboard" for the show. Dark Justice. Title tells the whole story in a condensed version. These are the best titles because they are both easy to remember and give the audience a "preview" of the film.
"The Man Who Knew Too Much" is not only a catchy title (all of those "oo" sounds) it also tells the story. So does "The Lady Vanishes" and many other Hitchcock titles. You don't have to do much thinking to figure out what "The Mummy" is about, and if you were to write an action version of "Romeo And Juliet" what better title could there be than "Romeo Must Die"?
If you can condense your 110 page script into a 70 word synopsis, then condense that into a dozen word logline, you can boil it down to a handful of words for a title. I'm not saying that's easy, just that it's possible. Titles that tell the story are the best kind you can have!
7) Two way titles. Ed McBain does these all the time, and I love them. He'll have a novel about diamonds stolen from a Broadway ticket scalper on the coldest day of the year and call it "Ice". Charles McCarry has a novel about a spy whose illicit affair puts his life in danger called "The Secret Lovers"... the title refers to both the secret lovers (affair) and the lovers of secrets (spies). The perfect two way title! No matter which way you look at it, it reflects the story.
Last year I wrote a script about a wealthy blind woman who believes that her long lost son has returned... because he loves her, not because of the millions his father left in the trust account for him. When evidence begins to mount that the young man may not really be her son, the blind woman finds herself unable to believe that the man could be an imposter. The obvious title for the script was "BLIND TRUST": that covers the fortune, the emotions, and even describes the wealthy woman (lead role).
8) Jargon. My favorite titles are those catchy phrases from the arena the script takes place in. "Hard Evidence" is both jargon, a two way title, and sexy. "Crash Dive" came from my submarine research. For "Unreasonable Force" I took the police phrase "reasonable force" and flipped it. I did the same with "Soft Target", twisting "hard target" so that it becomes a sexy two way title. "Last Call" is a mystery that takes place in a bar, but the big clue is a suspect's final phone call. "Hard Return" is a cyber thriller about the end of the line for the human race. While doing research on a script I'll find a cool phrase and write it down. The phrase has to be "idiot proof" though. Even if you don't know what a "crash dive" is, it's catchy and sounds like an action script. "Camels & Gypsies" refers to small tennis tournaments, but anyone paying $9 to see a film with that title will probably be expecting a "Lawrence Of Arabia" clone.
9) Name titles. Your script is about a guy named William, so why not title it "William"? The problem is the script is named after a character we won't know until AFTER we've paid our $9. So the title doesn't work as an advertizement... and also doesn't give the script any identity. No clues to what the script will be about, and it isn't intriguing either. William is a pretty bland name.
Even if we were to call the script "Sommersby" we'd be in trouble. Now we have a very distinctive name, but one that is difficult to remember. "Sommersby" still doesn't tell us anything about the script... we have no idea it's about a man reported dead, who returns to his wife very much alive, but very different. Most people who have seen this movie can't remember the title. My mom calls it "that Jodie Foster - Richard Gere movie"... which fails the parking lot test.
Though few films named after their lead characters have been successful, there are plenty of exceptions. A finished film has a movie star to give the project an identity. If Paul Newman's the star they can change the title from "The Moving Target" to "Harper" and get away with it. We don't have Paul Newman, we just have a script. The title has to create the identity.
10) Similar titles. The title is the identity for your script, so try not to use a title that might be confused with another project. "The Phantom" and "The Phantom Menace" are difficult to tell apart in the parking lot test. Add "The Phantom Empire" to the mix and we're making that studio reader wonder if she hasn't already covered this script.
11) Titles that ask a question or imply sex. "Where The Sidewalk Ends" is a mini-riddle. Where does the sidewalk end? Why the gutter, of course. "What About Bob?" makes us wonder about this Bob fellow. "The Man With The Golden Arm" doesn't sound like a riddle, but it makes me wonder why his arm is made of gold (Answer: He's a heroin addict pumping every cent he can get his hands on into a vein in his arm). A clever title that uses a question or riddle involves the reader before they have even opened the script.
Sex also sells. Title your script "Midnight Lace" and readers will be fighting each other for a chance to read the dirty parts (the film starred Doris Day, all of the dirty parts were implied). We all want to hear an "Indecent Proposal" and wonder what happens "Behind Closed Doors" with "Consenting Adults" who follow their "Basic Instinct". Tease the audience with your title and they will come to the theater to see the whole show.
12) Cliches in titles. We already know the saying, so it's easy to remember... but that can be a double edged sword. We don't want our title to be bland! So use part of the cliche to create a riddle. "Ever After" is a good example, as is "At First Sight" and "Deep Blue Sea" and "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle". We know that it's LOVE at first sight, giving this script a romantic identity. That's also a two way title, because the lead character gets an operation to correct his blindness. What else would you call a horror movie about scientists trapped between the Devil (sharks) and the deep blue sea?
You can also twist the cliche, creating something that is both new and familiar. Margin for error becomes "Margin For Terror". Going through the proper channels becomes "Improper Channels". Because we KNOW the cliche, it's easy to remember the variation.
Titles are the first example of your creativity a producer will ever see. If the three words I call my script are boring, imagine how boring 110 pages of my words will be! Use these twelve tips to come up with interesting memorable titles for your scripts. It's your baby, give it a good name!
...FADE OUT
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